Via Ed Gillespie’s website.

In what was an especially close race, Republican Virginia Senate candidate Ed Gillespie has officially conceded to the incumbent Mark Warner (D-Va.).

“This was obviously a hard-fought race, and I’m proud of the campaign that we’ve run and have loved every minute of it. Well, maybe not this one so much,” Gillespie said in a brief news conference earlier today, the Post reports. Though Warner celebrated and claimed victory on Tuesday night hours after the polls closed, Gillespie remained diligent and refused to concede, saying it was too close to call right now.

The last count for the election had Gillespie trailing by just 16,761 votes out of two million cast, according to the Post. The close race was especially surprising considering a poll last month had Warner at a comfortable double digit lead. In the weeks leading up to the race, Gillespie criticized Warner on a number of issues, including his stance on the Washington football team’s name and a bill that would take away the NFL’s tax-exempt status if the team didn’t change it’s name.

Though Gillespie lost the Senate, he told Politico earlier this week he has no plans to run for Governor, which many speculated he would if he lost.

“There are a lot of people thinking about running for governor in 2017. And I’m not one of them,” Gillespie said.